Part question, part rant
Im a sound engineer, dj and musician...love music anyway I can get it. Im 39 and been DJing since 93ish... I understand the old school and the new school, I thought...
Why do extra functions/routing on a DJ mixer have to come at a loss of sound quality? Why has sound quality gotten worse on DJ gear? Why aren't Djs demanding better quality equipment? Why do "house" mixers and "hip hop" mixers have to be so different?
...ok, I don't want the sound engineering explanation... "well, its all about schematics and electricity... no, no, no,...I blame us as DJs. We can't decide on a format (digital vs vinyl) and we definitely can't decide on a mixer to do that. Its our fault for not demanding better equipment for our needs - we not telling the manufactures what we want...
the top three mixer companies in the usa keep giving us a new device every year. how could we create a standard with the industry changing what we use every 6 months. then we give into the marketing and buy it... if the mixer is that good (as good as they advertise) then we should be using it for at least 2/3 years.
why are only the 1% of djs and clubs using HIGH QUALITY rotary knob mixers... why aren't the new digital mixers using the technology the of the old standards like bozak, urei, s and m, ars, etc... dj have leaned toward the digital format, making traveling with your music much easier, but we are way past mp3 days - 24 bit should be the norm for digital, we have the hard drive space... but still we got djs ripping youtube and playing it out - WTF
at this point digital and vinyl will live together, but damn, can we get digital to sound better - can you digital djs stop ripping low quality material please???
in the past when the big divide was vinyl vs cdc, we worked it out - clubs now stock both as standards... but can you digital guys decide on a universal controller ???!!!??? or at least can we get it down to just a couple...? and rip the sound quality better...i pity the fool
now lets be real here, the mixers we use in the usa are crap. pioneer sounds thin, transparent, brittle... since rane went serato, there preamps went to hell... allen and heath does a good job with sound, considering they use faders and not pots, there effects on the db4 are awesome sounding... but us usa djs keep telling clubs to buy pioneer - can't we just admit that these pioneers sound like crap and move on....
so you want great sound quality, go buy a rotary for 5 grand (house mixer) (worth every penny)... but if you cut, scratch, juggle - forget it... you sound great, but no new transformer pattern for the kids to hear tonight... now i know if you use linear faders instead of pots, you lose sound quality - but allen heath still does a decent job. every hip hop mixer has the awesome optical fades, but they don't sound that good...
when we starting over routing mixers boards (functions), then added effects, then added digital age....WE GET SHITTY USA MIXERS... its a shame...
can somebody make a pioneer, vestax, rane that sounds like a bozak?
can somebody make a bozak that has a crossfader?
can somebody make a mixer that sounds good w digital and analog (allen heath DB4 but still no one buys em in the usa)
CAN WE DECIDE ON A MIXER IN THE USA AS ONE GROUP OF DJS????
the being said, I'm taking recommendations on buying a mixer, top of line budget, for mixing house and hip hop style
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